BonBon Je T'Aime
by Pyrex Shards
Summary: Oneshot. Helga, Arnold, and a bag of imported French candy.


_BonBon Je T'Aime_

_a Hey Arnold fanfic by Pyrex Shards_

_pre-read by Lord Malachite_

Three seconds...

That's how long the transaction took. From the crinkled dollar bills placed hurriedly into the left hand of the nameless and acne-ridden French club student, to his brief attempt at a "merci," to his stare of consternation as Helga ripped the small bag of green apple flavored Eiffel BonBons from his right hand before he could finish saying "beaucoup."

"Yeah..." Helga mumbled as she smiled, staring at the bag of imported French candies in her hands as she walked away from the dumbfounded freshman. He simply shrugged from his seat at the table in the high school lobby, and continued on to the next customer. He was now a dollar closer to visiting France, and the shortest business transaction in the history of mankind would soon be forgotten.

Helga didn't really care either, for she had them.

Two dollars for a bag of candy...

Sure, the price was kind of steep for such a small bag of candy. But these things were really good. She was also lucky enough to have come across someone who happened to have one of the few remaining bags of green apple BonBons left in the entire school. The only other flavor available was strawberry.

Helga quickly pocketed the bag into her well-worn purple jacket and pushed on the door handle to exit the school. It made a satisfying metal clank as it opened, and immediately the sharp air bit into her ears and nose, the damned ever-present wind chill freezing all the way to the cartilage.

She narrowed her eyes and struggled to zip up the jacket over her pink and white striped shirt. On its way up the zipper popped off in between her fingers. She lifted the little white plastic piece up to her eyes and huffed at it. After tossing the cracked piece of cheap plastic over her shoulder, she bundled into the coat with her hands and proceeded on her short trek towards the bus.

The Friday before spring break of their sophomore year...

Helga hated this particular Friday more than any other. Week after week, she could torture Arnold in the hallways of the school, secure in the fact that he was in the same building with her.

She flashed her bus pass to the driver and walked to the back of the bus where she immediately sat down in one of the few remaining empty seats. Helga picked her left leg up and sat it across the seat, then folded her arms, ignoring the annoyed glares of the other students attempting to find a seat. Fortunately for Helga her reputation still stood.

If you were a student at Hillwood high you knew the one rule that kept you alive. Never cross paths with Helga G. Pataki. Her looks hadn't changed much at all. Average height, average figure, average bust, average everything. Complete with sculpted unibrow and a dark pink ribbon. But the attitude that she projected was everything but status-quo. Occasionally that attitude gave the occasional student a bruise. It served her well, or hurt her. But at this moment Helga didn't care very much about how the student body saw her.

Arnold was the exception...

She looked out of the window and saw Arnold walking up to the bus. He wore a red flannel jacket and blue jeans. A blue backpack slung over his right shoulder. She followed his movements as he entered the huge metal box with wheels, showed his bus pass to the driver, and then proceeded on. Eyes locked as Arnold caught Helga's. He smiled at her and she smirked at him.

It was a known fact, to Helga at least, that Arnold was a legs kind of guy. So she made attempts to tease him. This time with dark blue jeans just a little tight around her legs. Arnold noticed of course, then looked back at Helga. "Do you mind?" He asked jokingly.

Helga smiled simply and returned her leg to the floor of the bus, though she still had her back against the corner between the bus and the seat with her arm propped awkwardly against the window seal. "I actually mind a lot football head, but I make exceptions for people I tolerate."

"Gee, thanks."

"Don't mention it Mr. Oblong."

"That's a new one."

"Like it?"

Arnold tilted his head and chuckled. "Whatever..." The air brakes on the bus let go with a hiss and the bus started rolling forward. He placed his book bag between the two of them and sighed. Cursed be the teachers who assigned homework for spring break. He noticed Helga didn't have anything with her. No books. No bag. "Care to tell me how you're so lucky that you don't have any homework for spring break?"

Helga just shrugged in response.

"Okay, so none of your teachers assigned work?" He arched an eyebrow.

"Gosh your nosy, hair boy. I have one book report. Mrs. Simmons assigned some geometry proofs but you know how much of a pushover she is."

"Any plans?"

"Wouldn't you like to know. You?"

Arnold shrugged. "The same thing as last year."

That was precisely the reason Helga's heart sank at the realization she'd go a week without seeing Arnold at all. His grandparents had some old friends who owned a ranch in New Mexico. "Farmington again?" She said, letting her voice sound put off, though she feigned sarcasm. Despite the fact she already knew of his plans, she hated seeing him nod in response.

"At least its warm there during the day." He smiled. "The area is beautiful too."

Helga snorted. "You're just a stupid optimist."

"Thank you."

The banter continued, as it did every day on the bus. Arnold had formed a respect for Helga. A friendship of sorts with his long time arch-nemesis.

Everyone thought he was crazy...

That is, everyone except Helga. Fortunately for her, Phoebe liked to practice with a few other students in the band room after school, and Gerald liked to hang out there as well while they worked through tough pieces of sheet music, leaving Helga in a very special situation of being alone with Arnold on the bus every day. Arnold was practically the only familiar on this particular bus.

So over the course of this arrangement, after the name calling had evolved into talking almost civilly to each other, Arnold and Helga had managed to cultivate some sort of friendship. To put it better, Helga figured out how to best keep Arnold at arms length while basking in his cornflower accented presence. She would poke fun at him and he would return the favor.

He was getting better at it too...

She loved every minute of it. "I'll probably just stay around here and shadow Phoebe and Geraldo on their dates. You know, make their lives a living hell until Geraldo leaves so I can go to the mall with Phoebe."

"You really do have it out for Gerald, don't you." Arnold stated.

"Doi Arnoldo! I can't speak with Phoebs now without hearing about how romantic he is. Oh, and the way he always hangs on to her all the time... Blech!"

"They're dating, Helga... What do you expect?"

"I expect some time at the mall with my best friend."

"Well. I don't get to hang out with Gerald as much as I used to because he's with Phoebe, so get used to it. Or as you'd say, tough shit."

"Well, it's nice to see someone's developing a backbone."

"I have to, in order to deal with you every day." Arnold teased back.

Helga leaned towards Arnold and raised a fist, but her smile gave her away. "You're about five seconds away..."

"From my bus stop?"

Helga unclenched her fist and crossed her arms again. "Hmmph."

The bus pulled to a curb and stopped just a few buildings away from Sunset Arms, on Vine street. The air brakes hissed to life and the door opened.

Arnold stood up and picked up his back pack, slinging it over his shoulder, but stood there, staring at the front of the bus. With a slight breath, he looked back to Helga. "Do you want to hang out or something?"

"Whatever floats your boat!" Helga smiled as Arnold walked forward and she stood up to follow him out of the bus.

Arnold exited the bus first, carefully stepping off and balancing his backpack. Helga followed. The chilly air hit her face, and she reached for her zipper, then realized it was laying on the ground in front of the school, and instead bunched the jacket closed with her hand. Arnold turned and looked at her as the bus doors closed and the bus rolled away.

"You need a new jacket." Arnold commented over the bus as its engine revved and it pulled away..

"Tell me something I don't know."

"You can get a flash bulb to go off by microwaving it?"

Helga simply stared at him, bunching a little more of the jacket into her fist, and then closed her eyes. "I don't even want to know how you know that, so don't say anything."

Arnold straightened his own flannel jacket and blue backpack. "Whatever you say."

The conversation died as they approached Sunset Arms. As Helga walked beside Arnold, she glanced in his direction and noticed him looking down at the sidewalk in front of them. His eyes seemed forlorn, a complete change from the bus. Something was hurting him, and be it some kind of intuition from her nearly decade long observations of her crush, or simply the sight causing her heart, that same heart that beat only for Arnold, to hurt in sympathy with his, she broke the silence...

"Penny for your thoughts, Football head?"

"Wha? Oh. I was just thinking."

"About what? The cracks in the cement? They're not very interesting you know."

She curled her lips slightly in relief. He was smiling again.

They stopped when they approached the stoop of his home. He turned to face Helga. "Let's just sit here for a little bit. I'll tell you what's going on."

"Okay." She nodded, and Arnold sat on the second step from the bottom. He took his backpack and sat it on the step in front of him, bracketing it with his feet. Helga sat on the same step, though on the opposite side to give him some space. Her heart should have been leaping, she knew. It wasn't every day Arnold would tell her something personal. But instead she knew whatever it was couldn't have been good.

Helga leaned back against the side of the stoop, with one leg on the same step, knee arched up slightly, with the other leg resting lazily on the step below. She bunched a few more centimeters of her jacket up in her fist and stared intently at Arnold, noting that his smile had faded. He was going through the motions, she knew, of how to tell her just whatever he was going to reveal.

Finally he blinked and found his words. "My grandmother... She's starting to forget things. We took her to the doctor and found out that she's probably in the early stages of Alzheimer's. She's not forgetting significant things. But she'll forget details, like, where she put her coat, where the laundry room is. Things like that. I've been avoiding the subject, but I fear that when I go with my grandparents next week it'll be unavoidable." He looked at Helga, who was staring at him intently.

She remained silent in her unwavering stare as noisy cars drove past them.

Arnold continued. "I'm sorry I shouldn't really be talking with you about this, but I needed someone to confide in." He breathed and Helga could almost see a weight lift from his back.

"I'm sorry to hear that Arnold." She said quietly. "Gertie is such an angel. Very eccentric. But aren't we all sometimes?" Helga shook her head slightly and looked at the ground. "She doesn't deserve it."

"Thank you Helga."

"Don't mention it." At this point she balled her other hand up into a fist and pressed it against her leg. She was dying to ask, and she couldn't take it any longer. "Still, why are you telling me this?"

Arnold shook his head and chuckled. "You're a friend. Plus, like I said, I needed someone to confide in. That and... You're Eleanor Roosevelt."

"You remember that?"

"How could I forget? She asks about you sometimes. Hey Tex," he mimicked, "have you seen Eleanor around? I haven't seen her since the president fell ill." Helga let air escape her nose in a giggle and Arnold's face lit up at the memory. "I never could understand why, but she's very fond of you."

"Well. Uh. Some things will be forever a mystery... Corn-fed."

Arnold crossed his arms. "Someone's preparing for the lull next week."

Helga nodded in response. "So nice of you to notice."

Arnold palmed the cement and pushed himself up. Once he was at a hunch he grabbed his book bag and dragged it along the cement, up a few steps, where he stopped a few steps above Helga and sat with a slight grunt. He rested his elbows on his legs and let his head rest in his hands. Already, Helga could feel her heart skip a beat. Just the idea that Arnold saw her as a familiar enough to sit by on this old stoop made her want to blush crimson, as wafts of the scent from Arnold's flannel coat, carried by the cold air, tingled her nose with pleasure. She couldn't let this slide, so she situated herself where she could look up at Arnold. "I didn't say you could sit by me." She warned.

"This is my stoop and my house. So tough luck." Arnold teased her with the pitch of his voice. Helga couldn't see the grin on Arnold's face from his hands covering his mouth from her view.

Now that Helga could let slide, for it was indeed true. She idly reached her free hand into her pocket and withdrew the green apple BonBons. Arnold was so enthralled once more by the cracks in the opposite side of the stoop that he didn't see Helga holding the package until he heard the sound of a small plastic bag being strained open.

He looked down to see Helga popping a small light-green candy into her mouth with her eyes closed. She had the bag in her other hand, with that same hand pressed into her jacket, keeping it closed. "What are those?" He asked.

Helga couldn't help but laugh a little. She looked up at Arnold and spoke around the half chewed BonBon still in her mouth. "It's those candies the French Club dorks are selling. They're actually pretty good."

"Can I try one?"

Helga stuck her fingers into the bag again. "Um. Let's see... No?"

"Why not?"

"'Cause you're too cheap to pony up the two dollars to buy a bag for yourself, and this was the only bag of green apple BonBon's that I could find. Believe me, I looked." She popped a handful of BonBons, almost the whole bag, into her mouth and chewed them greedily, smacking her lips as she chewed them. Then she swallowed in mock ecstasy. "These are soooo good. You really should have one. Oh wait, sorry Arnoldo, I forgot, you can't have any."

"C'mon Helga, just one little piece." He closed the distance between them just a little, Helga still held that smug expression.

He watched as Helga chewed and swallowed another one, eyed him for a second, and then went for the bag again. "No."

"Little miss stingy." He grumbled and looked at his backpack.

"Say that again?"

"Little miss stingy."

Helga chuckled. "Oh come on. You can do better than that. Say it like you mean it."

Arnold thought for a second, and then added. "Little miss stingy, ass?"

"That's the best you got, Arnoldo?"

"Perhaps if you'd give me one of those it might motivate me."

"You wish." She popped the last BonBon into her mouth but simply shoved it to a corner, giddily adding "Oh, I'm sorry, that was my last one." She turned the bag upside down. "All gone."

Three seconds...

That was the time it took for Arnold to look into Helga's eyes, move his body closer, lower his head, and press his lips against hers. The word of protest she could come up with died on her lips as they met his. Her eyes could only focus on a sea of cornflower blond as she instinctively let her mouth open slightly when she felt Arnold's tongue pressing against her lips. It slipped between her teeth, and brushed against her own tongue. The contact was electric, she could sense her brain trying to short as she simply let Arnold's tongue brush against hers..

As her senses sharpened and she closed her eyes, and as Arnold gently pressed a few fingers against the side of her neck, just below her ear, Helga realized he was searching for that BonBon still tucked into one corner of her mouth. She gently scooped the BonBon over to Arnold's tongue with her own, and held it there against his. She could taste the green apple mix with the taste of his tongue as they flicked it around between them. She could feel the smile on his lips, and the gentle but satisfying pressure against her tongue.

They separated. Helga inhaled sharply from between her parted lips and with her eyes still closed, while Arnold leaned back, his fingers dropping from her neck to rest on her shoulder..

The candy was no longer in her mouth...

She blushed as she opened her eyes to see Arnold chewing the candy and then swallowing it. He breathed out slowly and looked at her with half lidded eyes; that expression still made her melt inside. "You're right Helga. Those are good."

Her speech was a little slurry, but she managed "Y.. Criminey. You stole it." Arnold simply shrugged, leaned in again, and gave her a peck on the cheek.

"Sharing isn't so bad." He whispered, then let his hand drop from her shoulder and stood up. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and offered Helga a hand. "I better go pack. I'm leaving bright and early tomorrow morning."

She took his hand and he pulled her up. Her face curled into a scowl and she yanked her hand away from his and crossed her arms, despite her shaking, both from the cold and the pleasant shock at what Arnold had just done. "Yeah. Well. You had no right to steal it. And. Well. If you do that again, I'll…" She raised a fist

"You're flustered Helga." He looked at her fist, "We're not in elementary school anymore either, pigtail girl."

And that was it...

For the first time in a long time. Arnold had won. Helga couldn't reply. Perhaps, maybe, she didn't want to? She lowered her fist, her shoulders, and softened her face. A twinkle in her eyes met Arnold's. "I hope you have a great time."

When Arnold approached the door and opened it, several cats, a few dogs, and Abner immediately ran out, despite the cold. Only Abner stopped and looked up at Helga, his little eyes seeming to say "I know you," before giving a friendly grunt and giving chase to the cats.

As Arnold turned to shut the door he looked at Helga. "I'm going rock hunting sometime next week. I'll bring something back for you. Perhaps some quartz."

"I'd like that." Was all she could manage.

Arnold bid her one last warm nod goodbye, and closed the door.

Helga looked at the door in reverence, then at the empty bag of BonBon's that she clutched in her hand, and breathed "BonBon, je t'aime." She gently placed the empty bag into the pocket of her old jacket, bunched the fabric up in her fist, and walked home, feeling light as a feather and with a lovesick smile spread across her lips that she sealed shut with a free finger, all the way home...

OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO

Author's Notes

I know, I know! I should be working on Chapter 2 of Bluebird. I promise I'll work on it this week. I just needed to write something small to kick my brain back into the proper gear. I got back from a grueling four day business trip out to Farmington, New Mexico (ha ha, get it) last week, and I'm having to recollect my gray matter. The Farmington area is gorgeous if you love the North-American desert as much as I do (the snow capped mountains against a desert backdrop is real "God's Handiwork" stuff).

Anywho! For some reason on the airplane back to Houston, I started thinking back to those Eiffel BonBon's that the French clubs like to sell in High School (they still do that, right?), then an idea hit me. ;)

One strong influence for this story is a film released in 2007 called _Paris, Je T'Aime (Paris, I Love You)_. It's a film consisting of 18 short films that are 5 minutes in length, each produced by a different director. The shorts are all functionally complete love stories set amongst the backdrop of Paris, France. This story probably couldn't be read in five minutes, but I just had to mention this film because it influenced me a lot, and I just had to see if I could emulate what I saw in that movie.

I hope you all enjoyed this! Please R&R!


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